Twenty years
by Silverwolven
Summary: Abby returns to County after a twenty year run to Minnesota. Please Review.
1. Chapter 1

_Goodbyes aren't forever_

_Abby sat in the back seat of a yellow taxi. She relaxed remembering all of the fond memories of County. Some memories sad, others happy, and the one that was still raw in her mind after twenty years was saying goodbye to Carter. It was like a fresh wound that would never heal no matter how much gauze, band aids, or stitches would heal it. "Lady, were here." The cabbie said as he parked on the curb. Abby nodded, and handed him the exact amount of money for the fare. "Thank you." Abby said as she stepped out of the back seat and gently shut the door. Cook County General had changed, especially the appearance. Walking through the ambulance bay Abby didn't recognize any of the paramedics who were pulling a young child attached to a gurney out of the back of their rig. Abby followed behind them, stopping at the triage desk. She pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to the nurse, "I'm here to see the chief of staff." Abby said, looking curiously at the nurse. She resembled Sam, kind of. "May I ask what your name is?" The nurse asked. "Abigail Lockhart." Abby said, waiting a few moments for the name to click on the nurse's head. "Sam? Do you remember me?" Abby said smiling at the nurse. "Oh my god Abby, I never thought I would see you after you left." Sam said opening the sliding doors for Abby to walk through. _

_Abby walked through them quickly and gave Sam a hug. "I never expected to find myself back here. The place it all began." Abby said. "Well, Susan is our Chief of Staff, she is going to flip when she sees you though. Twenty years Abby and you haven't changed a bit." Sam said smiling. "Yeah, sure…" Abby said smiling. "Go wait in the lounge, I will tell Susan your in there." Sam said. "Sam don't tell her its me, make up my name." Abby said walking towards the lounge. Sam nodded, and Abby walked inside the lounge, it hadn't changed that much at all. The room was still dimly lit and held all of the lockers, and the coffee machine. It was still stuffy, and held all of the same ratty furniture that had been there when she was a resident. Sitting down in a chair that she had most likely sat in years ago she smiled. Memories flooding back of all the parties they had throw in here. "It's still all so real." Abby whispered. _

_The door squeaked open, and Abby turned her head to see who it was. The woman looked familiar, but Abby couldn't place a finger on it. "Excuse me, do I know you?" Abby asked looking at the young doctor. The doctor looked at Abby, her blue eyes so familiar. "Wait; are you Rachel, Mark Greene's daughter?" Abby asked, it was so obvious, the curly brown hair, and the face, so familiar. The doctor nodded, "May I ask who you are?" Rachel asked with a British accent. "I worked with your father, I was a nurse. Abby Lockhart, but after you went back to St. Louis I became a doctor." Abby said smiling. "Ah…I went to London after I heard Elizabeth left with Ella, I just needed to start a new, and I was given that chance." Rachel said smiling, "I'm sorry to be abrupt, but I have to meet Elizabeth for lunch." Rachel said walking towards the door. "Don't worry about it, I'm sure we will get a lot of time to catch up." Abby said turning back to face the table. _

_"Mrs. Tomas, I'm Susan Lewis, Chief of Staff." She heard Susan's voice as the door squeaked open. Abby turned around, and looked at Susan, she smiled, Susan had not changed a lot. "Susan do you remember me, or am I going to have to start working under my new alias?" Abby said jokingly, standing up to meet her old friend. "Abby? Oh my god! Sam was giving me a sly smile, but I thought it was about something else! I can't believe it's really you, you look wonderful!" Susan said hugging her friend. "Susan, I just ran into Rachel Greene, have I really been gone that long? Are we really that old?" Abby asked, a smiled crept on her face. She had missed all of her friends so much. "Oh, we are just that old Abby, and you really have been gone way to long." Susan said smiling. "So I heard I have to see you for a job here." Abby said. "Are you serious, you don't need to see anybody, you could have just started working on patients. Of course your hired, you have your lab coat and everything? Just need to update your ID, and then you are all set. Everything is still the same." Susan said smiling. _

_"Susan, it has been twenty years, barely nothing is the same. Tell me what has happened here. What I have missed." Abby said looking at her friend curiously. "Alright, you might need to sit down for this one, twenty years is along time. But I will skip to all of the good parts, and skip all of the people you don't know or just don't want to." Susan said pulling up two chairs. Abby nodded, "Its been that bad?" she asked. Susan shook her head, "Just listen. A few weeks after you left, Deb came back. Since you were gone she thought she would immediately take your place. She was wrong and got immediately ousted from the group, pissed that no one liked her she left. We heard she got married to some Chinese businessman and moved back to China. Sam and Luka got married, they have four kids, including Alex. Luka is currently in Africa again, he is looking for some woman he heard went missing. Morris left after two years of being Chief of the ER, we all heard he committed suicide, but we never got confirmation from Mercy or any other hospital around here about that. Well, Elizabeth came back, and Rachel is working here as well. Pratt and Gallant are both in the Army now, we haven't heard from them in a while, but I'm sure they are alright. Neela is married to Ray, and they moved out west, they just kind of disappeared off the radar. I had one more child, a little girl, Abby. She and Cosmo are in high school, at Marist. John came back last year, he came back from Africa, without Kem. She cheated on him or something like that, and he just couldn't stand being there anymore. So he I think is upstairs watching a surgery, but he is still single. Kerry is still here, she is on leave though, Henry is sick. She should be back next week sometime. Everyone else is new, and you don't want to know them. All of the nurses are the same." Susan said taking a deep breath afterward. "That's a lot, you named your daughter Abby?" Abby asked, a bit confused to why. "Yeah, I was worried that I would never see you again, and I didn't want to forget you, ever." Susan said. "Well that is one way." Abby said laughing. "So now you have to tell me what has happened to you." Susan said._

"_Well, I moved back to Minnesota, and worked at a hospital right outside of DePaul. It was nothing like here, and very boring. I have no kids, my mom is dead, and my brother is somewhere I don't know. After my mom died I decided that I would come back here as soon as I had the money too. Now I'm here. John would get a kick out of the fact that I haven't drunk a single drop of alcohol or smoked a cigarette since he left though." Abby said smiling. "You cared that much?" Susan asked. "Yeah, I just kept seeing that look in his eyes, telling me no." Abby said. "Well, if it works, it works." Susan said giggling. "Its not funny!" Abby said. _


	2. Chapter 2

_"What's not funny?" A familiar voice asked as the lounge door squeaked open again. Abby smiled at Susan, she instantly knew whose voice that was, and his voice was exactly how it had sounded twenty two years ago. Abby turned around in her chair, "I was just telling Susan what I have been up to the past twenty years." Abby said looking at the doctor she had once and always would love with all of her heart. "Abby? Wow, you haven't changed at all, how are you?" John asked, he thought his heart had skipped a beat when Abby had turned around. She was still the beautiful vision of loveliness that forced him to keep waking up during his years in Africa. "That is what I have been told by everyone. I have been alright, just waiting for the right time to come back here." Abby said, she still couldn't believe how much he had changed, it was almost heart wrenching. John smiled, Abby still had her smart remarks, and that just showed how much she hadn't changed. She was still the young woman he had worked so hard to open up, and helped put the pieces of her life back together. "You actually wanted to come back?" John asked, a sly smile spreading across his face. "Yeah, I could not leave my family forever, that wouldn't be very nice of me now would it?" Abby said, she really wanted to say it was because she couldn't get him out of her mind, but she decided that it wasn't worth the fight. _

_"Abby, put your stuff in the open locker next to John's and then I will get you started." Susan said realizing that right now might not be the best time for them to fall back in love with each other. John cleared his throat, "After your shift, lets go over to Ike's and we can have a coffee or beer and just talk." John said. "John, I don't drink, I have been sober for twenty two years." Abby said smiling at him, as she stood up to walk over to her locker. Abby swirled the dial on the lock and opened the locker. "Susan, is this my old locker?" Abby asked noticing the old pictures taped to the sides. "Yeah, we couldn't give it to anyone; we didn't want them to throw away the pictures. There are a few of Mark, and some from Christmas and Thanksgiving." Susan said smiling at her. Abby nodded, and put her purse and coat inside. Putting on her white lab coat and stethoscope Abby smiled. "Is that your old one? From here?" Susan asked noticing the lettering on the left breast. "Yeah, I just kept wearing it." Abby said grinning sheepishly. "I can't believe it still fits." Susan said. "Well yeah, I didn't have any kids, so I just kept my nice shape." Abby said smiling at Susan. "Okay, that was below the belt, now you get the diarrhea kid." Susan said, opening the lounge door for Abby. Shutting the locker door Abby walked out of the lounge with Susan. _

_Walking up to the admit desk, she perused through the charts. All of them included giving the patient a rectal exam. Picking up one of the charts Abby walked over to curtain area three. Pulling back the sheet she smiled at the little girl, "Hi Ashley, I'm Dr. Lockhart and you're my very first patient." Abby said smiling at the little girl. "First day Doctor?" The little girl's father asked. "First day back working here, I left here twenty years ago." Abby said as she took the girl's temperature "101… Just a slight fever. Ashley does anything hurt?" Abby asked. "No, I just don't feel good." Ashley said. "Alright, well the nurse is going to give you some medicine for your fever, and then you can go home." Abby said as she signed the chart and handed it to the nurse who had walked over. The nurse nodded and handed back the chart to Abby, placing it in dispo. bin Abby walked over to the board, and cleared the little girl's name off of it. As the hours went by Abby had cleared about twenty patients and been in at least seven traumas. _

_Walking back into the lounge, she walked towards her locker. Opening the door, she placed her lab coat on the ring, and her stethoscope on the shelf. Pulling out her jacket she put in on, and grabbed her purse. "Ready?" John asked sitting up on the couch. "God Carter! You scared the crap out of me!" Abby said, after she jumped. "I will take that as a yes." John said standing up and grabbing his coat. Abby nodded, and walked over to him. "So, where are you staying?" John asked as they walked out of the lounge together. "I actually got my old apartment back, everything is just kind of falling back to how it was twenty years ago." Abby said. John nodded as they walked outside into the ambulance bay. They stepped to the side of the bay as an ambulance pulled in. The lights and sounds of the ambulance brought back a few memories of when Abby had left. It was not a sad memory, or a happy one, just a fleeting one. The walk to Ike's had been quick, they had basically ran there, it was way to cold. _

_Walking into Ike's was some what unforgettable. A glance back in time you could say. "Its all the same." Abby said smiling. "Yeah, Susan said they didn't want to remodel." John said smiling. Looking around Abby spotted a perfect spot, a table for two. Walking over to the table they sat down, and took off there coats. The heat was up way to high to be comfortable in a jacket. "John, before we start talking, I need to tell you this. Just hear me out, if you are mad at me, or leave, I understand." Abby said looking into John's brown eyes. "Alright Abby." John said trying to humor her. "John the real reason I came back is because I couldn't go on without you. I couldn't go on with my own life because of how you left. I didn't even say goodbye to you. When I was away in Minnesota it hit me that I love you, and always did." Abby said, she looked down, she was embarrassed by what she had said, but it was worth it. John needed to know. "Abby, I felt the same. I still feel the same now." John said looking at her. _


End file.
